hi everyone! i'm new to the board here. a little bit about me: i'm a 26-year old grad student from memphis, tn. i had a cavernous hemangioma on my brainstem that bled four times - when i was 8, 11, and 16. i had three surgeries and the third one finally did the trick when my neurosurgeon used the gamma knife. anyway, i have resulting damage to the 6, 7, and 8 cranial nerves and to the cerebellum and i have a whole assortment of problems: visual disturbances, facial paralysis, balance problems, tinnitus, headaches, and a gait disturbance to name a few. since the last surgery, i guess you could say i've been RELATIVELY healthy. not many major day-to-day problems except the ones i've listed.

anyway, i was recently diagnosed with dysautonomia after i got very sick and that's what brought me here to the forums. i got what i thought was the flu, but it lasted for a very long time and came along with tremors, pallor, lightheaededness, seizures (which i never really used to get), and cardiac arrhythmia. my heart rate was over 200 beats a minute when i went to see a cardiologist. anyway, i've been reading up on dysautonomia and i've realized that i think i've had it my whole life, even before the injury. i was diagnosed with tachycardia at a very young age. i'm currently trying to find answers as to whether it's related to my brain injury and if so, how.

anyway, it looks like this is a great place with a wealth of information and i'm glad someone introduced me to the boards. does anyone have neurological symptoms similar to mine?